A new school year is upon us, the first phase of summer job interviews – blessedly- is over, my website and blog have been charmingly wordpressed, and a new class of law school graduates is preparing to enter practice in law firms around the country.   So, after a year’s hiatus, I am recommitting to my blog, starting with a series of advice posts for law firm associates of all ages. Today’s topic is billable hours—as a basis for determining either fees or compensation — something that passes for the prime directive in most firms.  My opinion on the subject is well known, but here it is again, just in time for the new “school year”:

We can all agree that hitting your hours is essential.  Doing fine legal work is essential as well.  Your compensation, and your job security,  depend on both. But neither hard work nor good work is enough.  No matter how demanding your obligations in the office, both billable and non-billable, it is critical that you protect your own future –at this firm, at another, or in a different career–by building a strong professional network.  Getting a job, keeping it, prospering, and finding the next one all require more than a record of excellence and hard work.   

So, here’s some baseline advice.  Pass it on:   Do not listen to anyone who, in your first few years of practice, warns against spending otherwise billable hours building your network and personal reputation in the community.   This flawed advice is commonly offered up (in all good faith), not just by baby boomers, but by young partners over the age of 35 for whom “the best marketing is excellent legal work” was still a pretty workable mantra.  But they are struggling now, with the rest of the profession, to maintain and grow their practices, and should know better than to discourage you from learning how to fend for yourself.

Time spent building a broad and coherent business network, and learning the basics of client development and business generation, is a direct investment in your future, and a path to a self-sustaining practice.  That it may be non-billable is irrelevant.

Make no mistake about it: Your friends and classmates in the business community are already on message–and they are already ahead.  The MBAs, in fact, have access to sophisticated training in network building and business generation, and are not at all embarrassed, nor prohibitively intimidated, by the task.

The bottom line:  Any lawyer, and any professional development director, who tells you to wait until your third or fourth year to learn the basics of relationship building and business generation or to develop a networking and career development strategy is WRONG.  Follow his or her lead and you will fall behind your contemporaries in short order.